Difference between revisions of "Artificial island" - New World Encyclopedia

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==Political status==
 
==Political status==
  
Under the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]] treaty (UNCLOS), artificial islands have little [[legal]] recognition<ref>[http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/closindx.htm UNCLOS and Agreement on Part XI - Preamble and frame index<!-- Bot generated title —>]</ref>. Such islands are not considered harbor works (Article 11) and are under the jurisdiction of the nearest coastal state if within 200 nautical miles (370 km) (Article 56). Artificial islands are not considered islands for purposes of having their own territorial waters or exclusive economic zones, and only the coastal state may authorize their construction (Article 60). However, on the high seas beyond national jurisdiction, any "state" may construct artificial islands (Article 87).
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Under the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]] (UNCLOS) treaty, artificial islands have little [[legal]] recognition.<ref>[http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/closindx.htm United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention]. Preamble and frame index. Retrieved January 10, 2009.</ref> Such islands are not considered harbor works (Article 11) and are under the jurisdiction of the nearest coastal state if within 200 nautical miles (370 km) (Article 56). Artificial islands are not considered islands for purposes of having their own territorial waters or exclusive economic zones, and only the coastal state may authorize their construction (Article 60). However, on the high seas beyond national jurisdiction, any "state" may construct artificial islands (Article 87).
  
 
Some attempts to create [[micronation]]s have involved artificial islands such as [[Principality of Sealand|Sealand]] and [[Republic of Rose Island]].
 
Some attempts to create [[micronation]]s have involved artificial islands such as [[Principality of Sealand|Sealand]] and [[Republic of Rose Island]].

Revision as of 21:50, 10 January 2009

The Flevopolder in The Netherlands is the largest artificial island in the world.
The Palm, Jumeirah in Dubai.

An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by humans rather than formed by natural processes. Artificial islands have been created by expanding existing islets, construction on existing reefs, or amalgamating several natural islets into a bigger island. Thus they vary widely in size, from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar, building, or other structure, to those that support entire communities.

Early artificial islands can be floating structures in still waters, or wooden or megalithic structures erected in shallow waters (e.g., crannógs and Nan Madol discussed below). In modern times artificial islands are usually formed by land reclamation, but some are formed by the incidental isolation of an existing piece of land during canal construction (such as Donauinsel and Dithmarschen), or flooding of valleys resulting in the tops of former knolls getting isolated by water (such as Barro Colorado Island).

Some recent developments have been made more in the manner of oil platforms, such as Sealand and the Republic of Rose Island).

History

File:Tenoch2A.jpg
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec predecessor of Mexico City, was an artificial island of 250,000 inhabitants when the Spaniards arrived. (Dr. Atl).
File:Nagasaki bay siebold.web.jpg
Dejima, not allowed direct contact with nearby Nagasaki.
Eighty-year-old sea wall pilings from the failed Isola di Lolando construction project in Miami Beach, Florida.
File:Skrpjela.jpg
Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) in Montenegro.

Despite a popular image of modernity, artificial islands actually have a long history in many parts of the world, dating back to the crannogs of prehistoric Scotland and Ireland, the ceremonial centers of Nan Madol in Micronesia, and the still extant floating islands of Lake Titicaca. The city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec predecessor of Mexico City that was home to 250,000 people when the Spaniards arrived, stood on a small natural island in Lake Texcoco that was surrounded by countless artificial chinamitl islands.

Many artificial islands have been built in urban harbors to provide either a site deliberately isolated from the city or just spare real estate otherwise unobtainable in a crowded metropolis. An example of the first case is Dejima (or Deshima), built in the bay of Nagasaki in Japan's Edo period as a contained center for European merchants. During the isolationist era, Dutch people were generally banned from Nagasaki and Japanese from Dejima. Similarly, Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay beside New York City, a former tiny islet greatly expanded by land reclamation, served as an isolated immigration center for the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, preventing an escape to the city of those refused entry for disease or other perceived flaw, who might otherwise be tempted toward illegal immigration. One of the better-known artificial islands is the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, built for Expo 67.

The Venetian Islands in Miami Beach, Florida, in Biscayne Bay added valuable new real estate during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. When the bubble that the developers were riding burst, the bay was left scarred with the remnants of their failed project. A boom town development company was building a sea wall for an island that was to be called Isola di Lolando but could not stay in business after the 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression, dooming the island-building project. The concrete pilings from the project still stand as another development boom roars around them, 80 years later.

Modern projects

A view of Kansai International Airport from space.

Some contemporary projects are much more ambitious. Kansai International Airport is the first airport to be built completely on an artificial island in 1994, followed by Chūbu Centrair International Airport in 2005 and the New Kitakyushu Airport and Kobe Airport in 2006. When Hong Kong International Airport opened in 1998, 75% of the property was created using Land reclamation upon the existing islands of Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau.

Dubai is home to some of the largest artificial island complexes in the world, including the three Palm Islands projects, The World and the Dubai Waterfront, the last of which will be the largest in scale.

The Israeli government is now planning for 4 artificial islands to be completed in 2013, off the coasts of Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Netanya and Haifa. Each island will house some 50,000 people and bring in 25,000 jobs. The islands should help with overcrowding in Israeli cities and they are expected to cost billions of dollars.[1]

In the Netherlands, a proposal has been made to create artificial islands, possibly shaped like tulips, in the North Sea.[2]

Political status

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty, artificial islands have little legal recognition.[3] Such islands are not considered harbor works (Article 11) and are under the jurisdiction of the nearest coastal state if within 200 nautical miles (370 km) (Article 56). Artificial islands are not considered islands for purposes of having their own territorial waters or exclusive economic zones, and only the coastal state may authorize their construction (Article 60). However, on the high seas beyond national jurisdiction, any "state" may construct artificial islands (Article 87).

Some attempts to create micronations have involved artificial islands such as Sealand and Republic of Rose Island.

See also

Notes

  1. Young, Emma. November 13, 2002. Island cities planned off Israel's coast. New Scientist. Retrieved January 10, 2009.
  2. Thomasson, Emma. December 10, 2007. Dutch plan to build a new island. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2009.
  3. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention. Preamble and frame index. Retrieved January 10, 2009.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Waugh, John C. 2004. Kansai International Airport: Airport in the Sea. Architectural Wonders. New York: Children's Press. ISBN 0516259091

External links

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